Coffee in the Morning
by The Punch Lord
Summary: Edea's morning muse with a cup of coffee.


Edea hummed happily as the sweet, warm coffee slid over her tongue. The heat of the liquid warmed up her body, easing her back to relax in her chair as a content smile grew on her face with the sun shining down in Florem, happy and vivid. She liked that Florem was a lot cooler than Ancheim, the heat of the desert beating down on her everybody, mostly Ringabell, came to steady her whenever she wobbles around. So bad was it, she could hardly focus in fights.

Much less enjoy a cup of coffee. She had to drink hers cold.

And cold coffee never tasted good, especially when it couldn't dissolve the sugar as well as hot did. And she was used to having hot coffee, or any warm liquid to chase the ice of Eternia out of her body... and it was nice drinking the hot liquid in the morning with Alternis. It was a routine with them before the military really tore them apart. Before he was on the Council of Six and was able to stay in Eternia, she always got herself a cup just to sit and enjoy the morning with him. Even when she didn't need the drink, Alternis did and it offered her something to do as he slowly woke.

She smiled fondly at the memory, laughing a little at the nostalgia.

Alternis was always so dead in the morning. He could manage to get himself ready automatically, dressed and sitting at the table where she was waiting, but he could only hum and grunt at her while staring out blankly, not processing anything or anyone really. Coffee was the only thing he responded too, and it never failed to get him him going. Though sometimes it did take a while. But once he was going, their morning talk would begin and they'd chat over work, their frustrating coworkers, and so on.

Edea's smile dropped as she growled to herself, grumbling at she set her cup down, glaring at the dark liquid. She should have stopped at coffee.

Now she was thinking of Alternis.

He was her first friend and her voice of reason; but he never shied away from whatever mischief came to her mind. They always had a lot of fun together, and were always together, didn't matter if there was a five year age gap between them, they were inseparable.

To a point that her mother would often tease them that they'd end up married.

Where she got that idea, Edea would never know, and Alternis was no help in that, becoming a flustered babbling fool.

She sighed, closing her eyes as she tried to shove those thoughts back, but they came, visible and clear. Specifically the ones of her first encounter with Alternis as a traitor. She was so caught off guard and surprised by his appearance, she went to the defensive instinctively, readying for a fight to death.

But instead, when he could have easily killed Tiz and her, and whisk Agnes away; he fled with a warning, breaking their sky stone in the process. She didn't know whether to be mad at his cowardice or grateful that he was just as shook up about the meeting as she was.

Maybe it would have gone better if she didn't explode at him but she was just so caught off guard...

Einheria didn't go well, but at least she was somewhat prepared or expecting a meeting after she remembered that the sisters were posted here in Florem. She was prepared enough that she could talk to her without getting defensive like she did with Alternis but she wasn't prepared for killing Einheria.

Edea drooped, staring down had her coffee sadly, remembering Einheria's soft smile, the feel of her strong hands squeezing her own in comfort as she passed and greeting her waiting sisters. _She _had been comforting Edea. Shouldn't it have been the other way around? Shouldn't Einheria have yelled and snarled at her as she passed? Promised her that she'd meet a cruel end for being a traitor?

She bit her lip and massaged her forehead as she tried to bat back the ache in her eyes as her vision blurred. She did her mourning already. Einheria would have scolded her letting it still affect her. Agnes was pushing forward after loosing Olivia. She could do the same.

And she'd have to someday kill Alternis and her own father too...

She didn't know if she could be ready for that. No amount of preparing would ready her for that.

"Stupid Alternis," she grumbled as she angrily took another drink, the sweetness of it relaxing her slightly and taking her mind off the brooding future.

"Mif da ba?"

She started, looking up to see a groggy Ringabel waddle down to the chair opposite of her, his eyes barely open, his silver hair a complete mess, his own head was barely able to stay up, making him have to constantly right it as if jerked a little to the side.

"What?" she asked.

He pointed to the drink, a sleepy eye brow raised.

She guessed he was asking if the drink was bad. She shook her head, wrapping both hands around the cup, taking comfort in the warmth that seeped out of the ceramic in her had. "No, just... remembering."

He hummed before he fell to the table, eyes close as his cheek pressed against the wooden surface, practically asleep. Rolling her eyes and absently thinking of how it reminded her a bit like Alternis, she slid her coffee over, the smell of it catching his attention as he head perked up. "Have a sip," she said. "It'll get you going then you can spend that hour on your hair."

He smiled happily at that, taking the cup. "Tha u," he murmured out, putting the ceramic to his lips as he tilted it up, only to cringe at the sweetness of it, instantly waking him up by the horribleness of it. "Good?" Edea asked, smiling oblivious to his grimace. Or perhaps very aware of it and simply enjoying the sight of him cringing.

"Thank you," he said, a lot more clearly as he slid it back, trying hard to shove the leftover sweetness of the drink out of his mouth as his stomach became a little queasy at the small content he swallowed. "I didn't think I'd see you up this early, and down here with your hair like that," Edea commented, nodding to the rats nest on his head.

"There wasn't a plan too," he said, easing back in his chair as his hand slid up and tried to calm the mess a little to a more presentable look. "But if its just you who sees, that's fine enough." He smiled at her. "I know you wouldn't care if my hair was a mess or not."

"You're right. You're hair always looks like a mess to me," she said, smiling at his pouting grumble. "What else brought you down here?"

"I was about to go have it fixed up this morning, but I noticed two men eyeing you. I'll risk all of Florem seeing me if it means making sure you aren't bothered by those ruffians," he said with a sneer, his eyes darting over to glower at the said men. Edea followed his gaze a little to see that they were two middle aged men, making her mirror his scowl. Typical.

"Well thank you," she bid, taking a sip of her coffee. After the incident with Derosa, she really didn't want to be bothered by any guys that were much older than her.

"Always my dear," he swore to her, resting his cheek in his had, his eyes closing as he resumed a light snooze, simply enjoying the quiet morning with her. "So what were you thinking about?" he wondered absently, bating the water.

"Nothing really."

"If it wasn't the coffee that was offending you, it has to be something else. Will you tell me?"

Edea sighed. "I was thinking of Einheria... and Alternis."

"The woman and... the man that destroyed our sky stone right?" Ringabel grimaced, wishing that he did have the chance to meet the man face to face, see who this childhood friend of Edea really was. Apart of the Council of Six, he has to be as bad or possibly worse than Victoria and Victor.

"I'm sad about Einheria, and I'm dreading the day that I'll be doing the same to him, and to my father."

"We could always just not go against Eternia. Leave Tiz and Agnes to handle it themselves. That's what Agnes wanted originally anyway," Ringabel suggested. Ever since Olivia had been killed, Agnes had almost reverted back to how she was when they first met Edea; her eyes hard and disapproving as she stared at Edea, seeing nothing but an Eternian, not a woman that turned away from her home and was willing to help her.

It wasn't so bad as before, but he was catching that familiar look in her eyes, and she kept a slight distance away from Edea, choosing to hang with Tiz more often than be near Edea. Leaving could be for the best. Just let those two deal with Eternia, that way Edea wouldn't have to deal with the drama of seeing anyone else from her home die.

Or so Ringabel reasoned, thinking only what could be best for Edea.

"We?" Edea wondered.

Ringabel smiled. "Yes, we of course. I go where you go." He had been searching for her all his life (well, up to where he lost his memory), and having finally found her, he wasn't going to separate so easily. Edea rolled her eyes and shook her head, surprising both of them as she smiled back. "Sometimes you remind me of Alternis," she commented.

"Really?" he wondered.

"Yeah, he's dead in the morning, likes his coffee black, and as kids, even if he was the older one, he always followed after me, going along with my crazy plans," she laughed at the memory of all the scolding they got. The only big glaring difference was how Ringabel did his pale hair. Alternis didn't care about how his hair looked, especially as he wore a helmet over it. And Alternis was shy, so easy to fluster and tease; but he was also very serious compared to Ringabel, and short tempered like her. Sometimes it lead to both of them having yelling fits at each other, red faced and aggravated. But they always came back to apologize to each the very next day. She smiled at the nostalgia of it again.

"I really do miss those days, back when the duchy wasn't so important in our lives and all that mattered was having as much fun as we could since mother and father were always busy. We were all that we had, just us in a big mansion."

"Did you guys...?" Ringabel couldn't bring himself to finish, shaky at the thought of a man already settled in her heart.

"Did we...?" Edea wondered, raising a brow at him as she tried to figure what was bugging him now.

"Were you two together?" he clarified, forcing the words out.

"Like a couple?"

"Yes."

Edea laughs hard, nearly falling out of her seat and spilling her coffee. "What gives, hehe, you that, ha, idea?!" she asked between giggles.

"You two were always together! And alone..." Ringabel frowned.

Edea rolled her eyes. "There was nothing," she assures, "maybe if I wound up working under Alternis or if we didn't join the army, its a maybe but no, there wasn't anything between us." Ringabel watched her as she took another long sip, humming into the warm liquid as she relaxed into her chair, legs crossed, arm looped around the supporting back. Edea didn't really seem like she was infatuated with this Alternis, and truly did see him as just a friend.

But he really couldn't help but wonder about Alternis. Einheria was a close friend and she followed the Eternia law, and tried to kill Edea; all this Alternis did was break the sky stone, when he could have easily taken both girls, or just kill Edea right then and there, especially since he was apart of the Council of Six.

Just who was this Alternis?

Though Edea and the rest might not want the day of when they see this strange and powerful man again, Ringabel was starting to count the days, just so he could see who this man from Edea's past was.

Alternis... it was a familiar name too.


End file.
